Build for Star Citizen in 4K: What do you think?

[Pagan]

I'll start the listing:

Rosewill THOR V2 Full Tower Case

ASUS Crosshair Formula-Z Mobo

AMD FX-8350 @ 4.5GHz [Owned]

ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II x2 Crossfire OR EVGA GTX 780* SC w/ ACX Cooler x2 SLI

G.Skill Sniper 16GB (8 x 2GB) DDR3 RAM (1866) [Owned]

Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SSD [Owned]

Samsung 840 EVO 500 GB SSD [Owned]

EVGA Supernova 1000W Continuous Output PSU (Platinum certified) [Owned]

Cooler Master 212 Hyper EVO CPU Fan [Owned]

Windows 8.1 [Owned]

Monitor... Current using the ASUS VG248QE (which I realize is only a 1080p monitor). I'll be waiting till just before the SC final release to buy a 4k monitor as prices and monitor quality should be down and up, respectively.

*Personally, I'd prefer to use AMD video cards since SC will fully integrate Mantle, but I love EVGA. I've never had a bad experience with them, and when I had an issue with an EVGA GTX 570 a few years back, they shipped me a brand new one the day after I called in on two day shipping before I had even sent my 570 to them. I don't care about the green vs. red team garbage; I just care about customer service.

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So, any suggestions, critiques, etc.?

Do you think the FX-8350 will be enough to handle Star Citizen in CryEngine 3 at 4k with two (possibly three) high end video cards? (During their presentation regarding Mantle, an Oxide Games dev claimed that because of Mantle, he was able to underclock the FX-8350 to 2.0GHz without a decrease in video performance in their testing! Crazy stuff, and I good sign for us eight-core guys.)

Do you think I'd be better off waiting for the next gen video cards prior to the release of SC in Q1/Q2 2015? I'm currently running an EVGA GTX 660 Ti (3GB), and it should be good enough to run the alpha and possibly beta on low settings, and it's still good enough that I can run Planetside 2 and SWTOR on their highest settings, respectively.

[Antronman]

You probably want a better CPU cooler, just because the FX-8 core series gets really hot. The 290x has better performance than the 780, and considering both are factory OCed, the DCUII R9 290x GPUs should be better. The only problems I have are the CPU cooler (I wouldn't trust anything less than a WC loop, be it a closed or custom loop to cool an FX series CPU) and the case. I find Rosewill cases ugly :P. And the THOR V2 isn't windowed. I recommend the Corsair Obsidian Series, and the Coolermaster Storm Enforcer.

[Pagan]

Antronman wrote:
You probably want a better CPU cooler, just because the FX-8 core series gets really hot. The 290x has better performance than the 780, and considering both are factory OCed, the DCUII R9 290x GPUs should be better. The only problems I have are the CPU cooler (I wouldn't trust anything less than a WC loop, be it a closed or custom loop to cool an FX series CPU) and the case. I find Rosewill cases ugly :P. And the THOR V2 isn't windowed. I recommend the Corsair Obsidian Series, and the Coolermaster Storm Enforcer.

Haha, yeah, I don't find the Thor case all that appealing either, but it stays tremendously cool, and I got a really great deal on it. (I live in the deserts of the American SW where temps hover around 48 deg C for up to five months a year, so cooling is number one priority!) I don't need it windowed, though, as it sits under my desk. (I have a sit/stand desk which is electronically controlled, and the desktop is quite heavy! I don't doubt that it could handle it, but it would seriously decrease it's lifespan, and I plan on having it till I'm very old. =P )

As I just told you, cooling is my first priority, so I'll check out that type of CPU cooler, too.

Thanks for the response. 😃

[Pagan]

I just remembered my apartment complex likely won't allow watercooling considering fish tanks of any size are not allowed...! To be honest, I don't want to mess around with watercooling, though!

So, thoughts on the Noctua NH-D14? (I've never had issues with the FX-8350's temperature in the 14 months I've owned it, but I've been running it @ 4.0GHz to 4.2Ghz that entire time. I only plan on overclocking it once I've set up Crossfire / SLI, and it handled 4.5GHz at a comfortable temperature during my testing. If the Noctua is better as online testing suggests, I'll likely push that number up.)

[Antronman]

It's not a fish tank. Resevior. And buy a closed loop, available from manufacturers. Like the Corsair H100i.

[kkn]

the Noctua NH-D14 is large and "CAN" come too close to the vid card, so non condictive tape may be used.
but how close it cones to the new cards im not shure.
ive seen that there are around 1-2mm gap betwen cooler and gpu ( the clamp that holds the fan ).
and you have to think about ram height of the cooler so you dont hit a wall there.
if you have a temp meter you can move around, try and place it on the ground ( around same height as case going to be ) and compare it whit temp higher up in the room and see how mutch diffrence there is.
a closed loop cooler ( like corsair for example ) will be around 5'ish celsius hotter then room temp depending on how you set it up.
a closed loop cooler does not have mutch liquid in it self, a few DL max only.
on a custom made cooling you can have up to 2L or less whit coolant so its not mutch compare to a fishbowl/aquarium for example, and is an expensive cooling route.
look in the specs of the Noctua NH-D14 and see what sort of ram you can use for the height problem.

[Pagan]

Is there anything else I need with the H100i, or is everything required contained within the kit?

[kkn]

every thing should be in the kit, unless you want to change out the fans ( 2x 120mm fans ).
mabye get a tube of TIM ( termal grease ).